The First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo has called on the corporate community to assist Ghanaian artists to grow and maximize their inherent potential.
A great enthusiast of diverse works of art, Mrs. Akufo-Addo believes this “will promote interest in arts, boost the morale of artists and contribute to the BUY GHANA campaign.”
She made this call at the official opening of the Melcom Art Gallery in Accra.
Demonstrating that “art is the expression of human creative skill and imagination,” the First Lady explained that “from masters like Michaelango, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Rembrandt to our own Amon Kotei, Ablade Glover, Betty Acquah, Kate Badoe, Victor Butler, Atta Kwami, Larry Otoo, El Anatsui, artists have given us a window of our world that is both pleasurable and intriguing.”
She deftly explained how art has identified people and groups and ways through which many artworks have given rise to intellectual, cultural and identity debates.
“It is no wonder that civilization is closely tied with the arts,” she stressed.
Mrs. Akufo-Addo added that because art connects to us at a very personal level, a good piece of artwork can give pleasure to many who truly appreciate art and produce a narrative that tells us about times past, about civilizations and about the artist.
More importantly, she touched on the economic value of arts, and bemoaned why, it is lacking in rewards in this part of the world.
“We all recall that Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi or Saviour of the World in English, was bought for 450million dollars in New York, in November 2017, shattering the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold,” she indicated.
With an obvious exhibition of adept knowledge on the issues relating to the arts, she explained that the reference above should inform all that art is not remote to the bread and butter issues confronting us, and that, the study, funding and creation of artworks should be accorded a lot more attention.
To this end, she commended the effort of Melcom, in “giving artists a platform to display their work at no cost” and called on the corporate entities to assist in a similar regard.
She praised the artists whose works were on exhibition for maintaining originality and urged them to impart the knowledge to the youth.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
